CITYWIDE

Second Koran Found In Pace Toilet

Another copy of the Islamic holy book has been found in a toilet at a university library, a civil liberties group said yesterday. The discovery of the Koran in a toilet at Pace University’s lower Manhattan campus on Friday was the latest in a series of recent acts of vandalism tinged with racial or religious overtones at the school, said the New York chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, an Islamic civil liberties group. “We once again call on Pace University to take concrete measures to help educate the student population about Islamophobic bigotry and its negative impact on ordinary Muslims and on American society,” Maryam Sayar Akbar, the group’s civil rights director, said in a statement. In September, a copy of the Koran was found in a toilet at Pace, and in October someone scrawled racial slurs on a student’s car at the Westchester County satellite campus and on a bathroom wall at the campus in lower Manhattan. University President David A. Caputo has called them “deeply disturbing” and has held a meeting with faculty and students.

— Associated Press

POLICE BLOTTER

Police: Teenagers Mace Five in Queens Assaults

Fifteen-year-old twin brothers were arrested yesterday for spraying mace at five people in Queens on Monday, police said. According to police, the teens sprayed each victim in the face in a random assault, after the brothers allegedly found a can of pepper spray on the street in the Flushing neighborhood. The brothers, who were not identified because they are juveniles, were each charged with five counts of felony assault and five counts of criminal possession of a weapon.Police said the first incident occurred at 10:30 p.m. when they assaulted two men in their 40s at the intersection of 41st Avenue and Union Street. Fifteen minutes later at Barclay Avenue and Union Street, they allegedly sprayed a 39-year-old woman, a 47-year-old woman, and a 43-year-old man, police said.All of the victims were treated and released from local hospitals for burning and redness to the skin.

— Special to the Sun

STATEWIDE

Comptroller: Wall Street Highs Key To City’s Success

A report released yesterday by Comptroller Alan G. Hevesi touted that the city’s securities industry is adding jobs and that profits are on the rise. “Wall Street is recovering from the economic downturn that occurred in the beginning of the decade,” Mr. Hevesi said. “And, as we have seen in the past, when Wall Street does well, the city does well.”According to the report, the securities industry, both directly and indirectly, accounts for one out of every seven jobs in the city. Also, on average each new Wall Street job leads to the creation of an average of two additional jobs in the city. Mr. Hevesi’s report illustrates the importance of the industry to New York City’s economic and financial well-being, as it paid $49 billion in wages and $2.1 billion in taxes to the city in 2005.

— Special to the Sun

IN THE COURTS

Video Recounts Child’s Abuse by Stepfather

Nixzaliz Santiago wailed and quaked as she watched a video of her boyfriend tell how he would hit and whip her 7-year old daughter, Nixzmary Brown. The videotaped interview of the boyfriend, Cesar Rodriguez, was shown in Brooklyn Family Court yesterday. The interview took place at a police precinct on January 11, the day Nixzmary Brown was found dead and starved in the family’s Bedford-Stuyvesant apartment. The video was projected against the wall during a hearing. The judge, Nora Freeman, paused it twice to allow Ms. Santiago time to cry. Mr. Rodriguez watched the video intently, his head cocked to one side. During the videotaped interview, a prosecutor showed Mr. Santiago five photos of Nixzmary Brown’s dead body. The prosecutor, Linda Weinman, asked Mr. Rodriguez to explain the black eyes, lacerations, and welts that covered his stepdaughter’s body. Mr. Rodriguez said he inflicted some of the wounds. Others, he claimed, Nixmary had done to herself. Mr. Rodriguez is charged with murder and Ms. Santiago is charged with being a participant in the abuse.

— Staff Reporter of the Sun